Trust your pace and voice

Things in your life will ebb and flow and change. Without you asking, new careers will begin, relationships will end, friendships will thicken or get old and grey. Life will happen. Sometimes you’ll be left reeling, other times you’ll be solid and steady.

Both are important.

It’s not your job to hold on to things tight and white-knuckled, hoping it’ll stay the same.

It never does, and there’s beauty and grace in that.

A few weeks ago I was on a retreat in California. I took a week to catch up with old friends, spend days at the beach, play with dogs. My soul needed blasting by warmth and water.

As I soaked in the nature, its wisdom soaked in too.

Something felt different. I said to my friend, Liz, “I’m feeling some important changes happening inside…”

“What are you feeling most?”

“Pace and voice.” I said. “I’m learning to trust them, even though they’ve felt shaky before…”

“Sounds about right… remember your mantra: ‘It is safe for me to trust.’ You’ve powered through in the past, and now your insides are changing. What you want to say and how you’ll say it will change too. It’ll happen naturally.”

She was right.

I’d spent the last few years building fast. Fast career. Fast relationships. Fast things. Go faster, work harder, do better. Doesn’t jive with my insides anymore.

Sometimes we need to let our own pace and voice guide us, even if they’re shaky.

Even if we don’t know what they’ll say. Especially if it looks different from what everyone else is doing.

It is safe for me to trust.

Honoring our new voice and its shifts and messy lessons is part of the process.

It is safe for me to trust.

Sometimes what’s asked of us is not to kick up dust in our lives like a Tazmanian Devil going fast without looking, but to let go of controlling every part of our lives and business (busyness.)

The real Tazmanian wants his spotlight back.

Your voice and pace change over the years because they’re meant to. As YOU evolve, so do the things that most reflect YOU; that includes what you believe about and how you talk about what you believe. The rate of both those things change with you, not in spite of you.

It is safe for me to trust.

Say it every moment if you have to. Instead of wanting to trust, but still holding on, really trust this time. Let go of what it used to feel like, look like. How you used to respond.

The ocean doesn’t hold on to what it gives you. It doesn’t look or move the same way it did last week. If it did, we wouldn’t connect. What we need from the ocean is the knowingness that it changes with us – that the moment we go to it, it whispers to us the lesson or blessing we need in the moment.

It is safe for you (and me) to trust.

Do you trust your pace and voice? Are you in a shaky space where you’re learning to trust both more? You’re not alone, kiddo ;). I want to hear what you’re going through and how you trust yourself during both good and hard moments. Email me at ishita@ishitagupta.com and let me know if you’re going through the trust process.

If you liked this post and know someone who’s struggling and who needs to hear this, please pass this along to them and forward the email. Family, friends, colleagues, we all need help sometimes to get our confidence back. Be the person who helps yourself and then helps others find it :).